Maine District 207 Students Could Sleep In On Wednesdays

Students in Maine Township High School District 207 might be able to sleep a bit later every Wednesday next year, if the school board approves a proposal to make every Wednesday a late arrival day.

Up until now, the district has scheduled 12 to 15 late arrival Wednesdays throughout the course of the year, roughly every other week with interruptions for vacations and holidays, and students have arrived at school roughly two hours later than usual to allow teachers time to collaborate with others in their department.

Under the proposed schedule, students would arrive about 70 minutes later every Wednesday, giving teachers time to work together every week.

The change would allow for a better schedule on collaboration days, giving students class periods of 38 or 39 minutes, said Barb Dill-Varga, the assistant superintendent for curriculum. This year, class periods are either 30 or 35 minutes long on collaboration Wednesdays.

“It might not seem like eight or nine minutes makes a big difference, but with only 30 minutes, by the time you’ve taken attendance and everyone is settled in, they’re already watching the clock and waiting for the end of class,” Dill-Varga said.

The other main benefit is more regular collaboration between teachers who teach the same subject, she said, introducing Jay Payne, the science department chairman at Maine West.

Teachers in that department began to work on a new model of collaboration this year and were able to make a number of key changes that make it more likely that students in the same classes – but with different teachers – will cover the same material, and that all the teachers can learn from those who teach a particular topic well. Their new structure even allows students in different levels of a class – such as regular and accelerated – to cover the same topics at the same time, which allows students to look to one another for help or even to move up or down levels if their performance warrants it, Payne said.

But doing that means that teachers must meet regularly to stay on the same page, and weekly collaboration periods would help.

 The change would mean that students would spend about six minutes less in class every two weeks, Dill-Varga said.

Board members were generally positive, saying that parents might appreciate a more regular schedule.

However, board president Sean Sullivan pointed out that students do a good job of keeping track of late arrival days.

“My kids never went to school any earlier than they needed to,” he said.